For those who don’t have the inclination to delve behind the paywall, Ed Miliband’s interview with the Times can be summarised in four words: think of the children. Yep, the
Labour leader is out a-courting the youth vote – and who, really, can blame him? The recent student protests have made Westminster’s strategists realise that these people aren’t apolitical
after all. It was inevitable that someone would try to reach out to them.
The problem for Miliband is that he doesn’t really have a prospectus to offer. He rattles off three familiar policies – a graduate tax (of uncertain design, and even more uncertain worth),
votes at 16, more apprenticeships – but concentrates on simply attacking what the government is doing. It’s effectively the old “cuts vs investment” divide in microcosm. On one
side, we’ve got the coalition saying that we can’t burden future generations with debt. On the other, we’ve got Miliband claiming that:
Although, might Labour might secure the youth vote by default? In the latest YouGov poll, they are on 53 percent among 18-24 year-olds, against the Tories’ 25 percent. They’re also ahead by 14 points among 25-39 year-olds. That’s a sweeping turnaround from the election, when the Tories led by a few points across a similar age bracket. Little wonder that Miliband is trying to convert those numbers into votes.“Getting the deficit down is important but if you focus on that to the exclusion of everyone else, you end up selling out the next generation. It’s cavalier where these cuts are falling.”
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